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UK Continues to Be Battered by DDoS Attacks

DDoS attacks increase by over 200 percent, with the United Kingdom the second most targeted nation.

By Tom Jowitt

The United Kingdom remains a major target for criminals as security specialist Imperva reveals South Korea continues its run as the main source of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.

The latest DDoS Threat Landscape Report from Imperva also found that the United Kingdom continues to be the second most targeted nation for DDoS attacks, which have risen 211 percent year over year.

DDoS Scourge

The rise of DDoS attacks are being fueled by DDoS-for-hire services (stressers or booters), said the security firm. It found that the number of these DDoS services had risen from 63.8 percent in Q2 2015 to 93 percent in Q1 2016.

"Looking at data across the four quarters, you can observe an uptick in repeated attack events, which have increased from 29.4 percent in Q3 2015 to 49.9 percent in Q1 2016," blogged Imperva. "This showcases the tenacity of DDoS offenders, many of whom persist in trying to take a target down even after multiple failed attempts."

It also said that DDoS attacks are now the most common cyber threats that online organizations face, and 40 percent of targeted businesses are being attacked more than once (16 percent were targeted more than five times).And it seems that criminals are experimenting with new attack methods in an effort to circumvent security solutions.Imperva also found that network layer attacks hit a new high, with the largest assault peaking at a staggering 470 Gbps. That said, application layer assaults accounted for the majority (60 percent) of all DDoS attacks.South Korea maintains its position (ahead of China) as being the main hub for DDoS botnet activity.Main PerpetratorIn April, Imperva warned that South Korea was the top originator of DDoS attacks. It said that 29.5 percent of all attacks has originated in that country, with Russia (10.8 percent) and Ukraine (10.1 percent) made up the top three originators.Those findings contrast with rival security firm Akamai, which warned last Christmas that the United Kingdom was the leading originator of DDoS attacks.But both agreed that the frequency of DDoS attacks is on rise, after Akamai said that instances of "mega attacks" are becoming more common.